


The Ghost of You

by campnowhere



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Crack, F/F, Ok it's a songfic and i never thought I'd do a songfic but it works, Post - Apocalyptic, Songfic, supercat, supercatweek
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-06
Updated: 2016-08-06
Packaged: 2018-07-29 15:29:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7689940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/campnowhere/pseuds/campnowhere
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The world is falling apart, piece by piece. Can Kara find Cat and Carter before they are lost from her forever?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Ghost of You

**Author's Note:**

> Inspiration and lyrics from My Chemical Romance, The Ghost of You...

_“I never said I’d lie and wait forever, If I died we’d be together…”_

She is on the other side of the world when it happens, lifting busloads of children off the side of ocean lined cliffs and saving stranded fishermen from swelling waves. Her cousin is there too, stopping lava in its tracks to save villages and digging new wells to replace ruined water sources. They think they have time before the effects reach North America, but they are wrong. Everyone that has tried to predict anything is wrong.

The west coast has only a few hours warning, long enough to set the cities loose in panic. Roads are gridlocked, people are rioting, scrambling for their lives to get away from what was once their home, but will now be a wasteland underwater. Cat refuses to leave until her son is delivered to her. She organizes evacuation plans from the top floor of CatCo, sending as many people as she can to higher ground by way of the fleet of CatCo helicopters. She only stops when she learns he is stuck several blocks away. She tells everyone to stay if they want, to try and ride it out until rescue might be possible, but she leaves. She leaves behind the literal representation of her empire to find her son. It is the last anyone sees of her. 

Kara and Kal feel it before they ever get word. A sharp rumble, like thunder in their ears. At first they think it could be the unpredictable weather the scientists had warned them of, but this was literally earth shattering. It rolls like a shock wave around the earth and they stop when they can to try and get information. Contact with the DEO had started to go down days ago so they are acting on instinct alone, saving the thousands of people from rising waters and unpredictable volcanos that are in front of them, holding out hope that they will be contacted if they are needed elsewhere. 

Kara is the first to break. “I feel like we need to go, Kal. What we felt, that wasn’t close. It felt like it came from…within somehow.” He nods in agreement. With only a stop in to the local makeshift government headquarters, they are on their way. They’re too late.

_“At the end of the world or the last thing I see, you are, never coming home, never coming home…”_

National City and the rest of the west coast is underwater. Except for a handful of the taller skyscrapers which rise from the turbulent waters, everything is lost. A few people gather on the rooftops, waiting for rescue. But there are no rescue crews, except for the two superheroes. They drop food and water first, then scout the surrounding landscape for anywhere, anyone to take in refugees. That’s when they find a miracle, they find Alex. The DEO is underwater, but they have a backup location in the mountains with a limited supply of survival supplies. She and J’onn were the only ones to make it out, only thanks to his alien abilities. Kara asks about Eliza, about Cat and Carter, about her friends…but Alex doesn’t have any answers, only tears.

The coast is not the only part of the continent to have suffered. When the earth’s crust shifted and let out that enormous shock wave, the Yellowstone caldera erupts and the fault lines around the whole of North America burst in vibration. Cities fall into rubble, highways crumple and power grids fail. Long dormant volcanoes come to life and ash clouds fill the air. Planes and helicopters can no longer fly and satellite signals are lost in the impenetrable clouds of dust and ash. Weather is unpredictable, hurricanes and tornados spring up in seconds and leave nothing but destruction in their wake. 

Kal leaves to go to Metropolis in a flash. He finds Lois alive and it gives Kara hope. Cat and Carter are the first things on her mind, but she knows it should be Eliza. She can do nothing but hold Alex when she returns empty handed. She searches the CatCo building for signs of Cat, of Winn and James, but she finds nothing. Nothing but lives lost.  
They force her to rest. They tell her she is searching for ghosts. She and Kal have saved dozens of survivors in the nearby cities and J’onn has scavenged supplies from the same. The ash blocks the sunlight, weakening them, but she refuses to stop, hurls herself in the sky to find the sunlight above the earth’s lower atmosphere. The only thing she can think of is Cat. The woman she loves, but never got to tell, never got to hold, never even had the chance to tell her the truth.

_“And all the smiles that are ever gonna haunt me, never coming home, never coming home…”_

Kara exhausts herself, lands in a heap in a penthouse apartment much like she imagined Cat’s would have been, except for the broken windows and drenched carpet and furniture. Debris covers the whole space, likely blown in from one of the storms that have pounded the area in the past few days. She finds water and a small amount of food. It’s enough to hold her over until morning, until she can sleep a bit, enough to recharge her batteries and begin her search again. She dreams. She dreams of sun filled days and laughter, of blonde hair and smirking lips. She dreams of a balcony where she shares all her hopes and her fears and a sky full of stars. She dreams of the last conversation she had with Cat, when she wants to take the woman in her arms and never let go. They had come so far, had grown so close in the past few months. And now, all she has left is her memories.

She flies circles around the city, searching for signs or sounds. The waters have receded a bit today and more is visible, but the winds are howling like they have been for days and it’s hard to hear herself think, much less hear someone cry for help. It’s a haunting image, to see skyscrapers bent like matchsticks, to see office furniture dangling out of windows and debris floating like a landmass among the long lost streets. 

The wind is picking up more now and she can see the storm clouds gather, like someone has hit fast forward on a movie. Lightning strikes three places at once and she knows her time in the air is about to become more treacherous. She turns back east towards her penthouse for shelter, but stops short when a flash of color catches her eyes. There on the east side of the building adjacent to the CatCo high rise, a window is completely broken out and a there is a trail of red and blue flapping in the wind. Lightning strikes again, closer this time, and she darts down closer to the open window, calling out as she approaches, hoping to see a sign of life. She almost crashes into the side of a building when a curly brown head appears. He’s dressed in a dirty light blue button-up and khakis and when he sees her, his face lights up with a blinding smile. It’s Carter and her heart feels like it might drop right out of her chest.

She’s in the window in seconds, engulfing him in her arms and burying her nose in his hair. He clings to his hero, begins speaking so fast Kara can hardly understand, but then she hears another voice. Cat is trying to sit up from her make-shift bed on a small office couch. Kara is in front of her in less than a second, stopping her from moving any further, scanning her with her x-ray vision to find out what’s wrong. A gash on her forehead, a concussion, but otherwise she’s ok and Kara drops her head to Cat’s lap in relief. Carter has come closer so Kara reaches out a hand to bring him to her, wraps her arm around him to hold him to her side. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you two,” she says with a strained smile. She closes her eyes again, feels Cat’s hand in her hair but startles when the lightning strikes close. She flies them to her penthouse safe haven to be further away from the storm and the once again rising waters.

_“And all the wounds that are ever gonna scar me, for all the ghosts that are never gonna…”_

They stay in the penthouse for the next few days. Kara scavenges the apartments below them for medical supplies, food and water and they are comfortable while Cat gets back on her feet. They barely speak, overwhelmed by the situation, but Carter admits that he thought they would die in that office and it breaks Kara’s heart. She does the only thing she knows to do, she talks. She tells him about the place in the mountains, about her sister who is there and the people she and Superman have saved while she was looking for them. 

On the third morning, Cat is awake before either of them. She’s dressed in clean clothes she found in the adjacent apartment and is packing food tightly in a backpack. They leave for the mountains, planning for a stop along the way for Kara to rest. The ash and clouds are thicker in the sky today. She’s strong enough to make it back, but wants to let her two passengers to have a rest as well. They land on a rocky outcrop at the westward edge of the mountain range where Carter wanders a bit to stretch his legs and Kara and Cat stand shoulder to shoulder looking over the landscape. 

“I haven’t said thank you, Supergirl. We wouldn’t have made it if you hadn’t found us. I’ll be forever in your debt.”

Kara turns, searches Cat’s eyes. She’s afraid and it makes her laugh. It’s the end of the world and she’s still afraid to tell her secrets and it’s ridiculous. Cat only quirks an eyebrow at her laughter, waiting patiently for a response. “Cat. I searched for you and Carter for days. Alex told me, they all told me, that I needed to conserve my energy, but I never gave up. You were the first thing on my mind when all this started and now I’m standing here in front of you and we’re alive and I’m still afraid.” She feels the warmth of Cat’s hands slipping into hers and she feels chills run up her spine.

“What are you afraid of?” the older woman quietly asks as she runs her thumbs along the back of the superhero’s hands, trying to give the only comfort she knows how to give right now. 

“I’m afraid that I can’t keep you safe. I’m afraid that you won’t forgive me for keeping secrets from you. I’m afraid that I’m going to lose another planet right from beneath my feet and I’m afraid that you don’t feel the same way about me, that I feel about you,” she finishes softly.

Cat hums, looks down uncertainly at her pilfered tennis shoes and clothing. She raises her eyes back up to meet her savior’s, brings her hand up to palm her cheek in her hand, “I don’t think you have to worry about that last part.” She smiles softly before rising on her toes to place a soft kiss upon Kara’s lips.

“Mom? Supergirl?” Carter asks from a dozen feet away.

Cat drops down onto her heels and gives Kara a smile before turning to her son. “Darling, I think it’s time we started calling Kara by her name.”

_“Ever get the feeling that you’re never all alone…”_

In their best calculations, only a small percentage of the earth’s population survived. They don’t know how they’re going to make it. They don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow. All they know is that they have each other, and that they will never be, all alone.

**Author's Note:**

> txnmcky on tumblr


End file.
